Dangerous white tip shark ‘spotted’ off coast of Cornwall

A species of shark thought to be behind hundreds of attacks on humans has been sighted off the coast of Cornwall.

Reports of sightings of white tip sharks off the Cornish coast near St Ives

The harbour master’s office in St Ives confirmed today that two people on separate boats had reported seeing an oceanic white tip shark a mile offshore from the popular tourist destination.

According to the Western Morning News, one sighting was made by a fisherman who had fished off St Ives for 30 years, whose wooden boat was rammed by one of the sharks as he fished for mackerel.

A spokesman for the harbour master in St Ives said they were not ‘100%’ sure yet if the sharks spotted were oceanic white tips – blamed for many attacks on victims of shipwrecks and plane crashes at sea over the years – and stressed that people should not blow the reports ‘out of all proportion’.

The pelagic – or ocean-going – species is usually found far further south in deeper waters away from the coast, with Portugal being the usual northern-most reach of its habitat.

Matt Slater, curator of the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, said the reported sightings were ‘exciting’ and, if proven, would be the first of the species in UK waters.

‘It is fairly unlikely that one would come up here, but it is possible,” he said.

‘If there was one out there I wouldn’t greatly fear it would attack a human. It is too cold for it and because of that it would have a slow metabolism – it would not have a massive appetite and there are plenty of mackerel and other fish around for it to eat.

‘It would be exciting to have definitive proof it was a white tip shark. People should not be afraid of this animal – they have a bad reputation but divers go in the water with them regularly. There are other species which are far more dangerous.’